Landscapes

Standard

(8x8in canvas panel)

In the past I’ve avoided doing landscapes, they were never appealing to me – and when I would try them I would fail horribly. My teen art student has been wanting to do them and even live outside! (plein air, here’s what we did last week) So I find myself wanting to try them more as well. Our neighbor friends took us on a nature walk about 5 miles (via bike ride) away and the sense of wanting to set up my easel and start painting what I saw was overwhelming. Alas, I just snapped some reference photos to paint later. Even though everything is still brown and dry here, when the sky turns blue everything just feels more alive. I was particularly enthralled by how the blues change in the water as it gets closer to you.

So here’s the first of my landscapes from this walk.

After finishing this one, I felt I got too nit-picky and tight and tried another quick, loose and bold sketch in about 10 minutes just to loosen back up and get a different feel. It feels a little ‘unfinished’ but the brush strokes are more what I was trying to capture.